Through research, expert engagement, and public events, the CSIS Commission on US Cyber Force Generation has produced a report on key findings and recommendations on force structure, recruitment, training, retention, and operational integration. The report provides policymakers with a practical roadmap for strengthening US cyber capabilities and ensuring long-term readiness in a contested domain increasingly central to national security, writes IGP Faculty Member Erica Lonergan. 

Workshop participants explored the potential causes and pathways of land and space-based scenarios that might trigger a wider crisis in space and how to avoid conflict escalation in this domain.

Public discourse about the potential for a new organization, a United States Cyber Force, reflects a growing consensus that significant organizational change is required to meet the US military’s current and future challenges in cyberspace, write IGP Emerging Technologies, Intelligence, and Security Initiative Cofounder Erica Lonergan and coauthors. If the US does not get organizational culture "right," no amount of organizational change will be effective in addressing its force generation challenges.

IGP Affiliated Faculty Members Jason Healey and Erica Lonergan comment on the Trump administration's firing of Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of US Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.

Erica Lonergan, assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and Rear Admiral (ret.) Mark Montgomery assert the need to establish a dedicated US Cyber Force as an independent military service branch.

The Institute for Global Politics (IGP) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) convened an intimate group of leading experts for a closed-door convening to tackle cutting-edge academic and policy questions regarding the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for strategy and grand strategy.

Why did the US Army decide to create a new basic branch for cyberspace? In this article, we explore the causes, processes, and outcomes of cultural change within the Army in a cyber context. Our findings suggest broader implications for military cyber organization and strategy.

Cyberspace is a primary battleground of the twenty-first century. Yet, grand strategists have been slow to address cyber strategy. IGP Emerging Technologies, Intelligence, and Security Initiative Cofounder Erica Lonergan and coauthor Michael Poznansky examine the implications of four prominent American grand strategies—restraint, deep engagement, liberal internationalism, and conservative primacy—for core topics in cyber strategy.

Military organizations are generally defined by a “cult of the offensive.” For cyberspace, this gives rise to an empirical puzzle, at least in the United States. What accounts for the early restraint and skepticism about cyber offense publicly expressed by many US military cyber leaders? In this article, IGP Emerging Technologies, Intelligence, and Security Initiative Cofounder Erica Lonergan explores the US military’s approach to cyberspace as a theory-developing case study.

In the US military, an officer who had never fired a rifle would never command an infantry unit. Yet officers with no experience behind a keyboard are commanding cyber warfare units. This mismatch stems from the US military’s failure to recruit, train, promote, and retain talented cyber warriors. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines each run their own recruitment, training, and promotion systems instead of having a single pipeline for talent. The result is a shortage of qualified personnel at US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), which has responsibility for both the offensive and defensive aspects of military cyber operations, writes IGP Faculty Member Erica Lonegran.